The United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on November 30 that after appearing in the period from August 2020 to May 2021, the La Nina weather phenomenon will return and is expected to last until early 2022.
The WMO said La Nina affects global temperatures and rainfall. Although La Nina often causes colder weather, this year's temperatures may remain above average in many places around the world.
"The cooling effects of La Nina in the 2020-2021 cycle are often felt clearly in the second half of the cycle, meaning that 2021 will be one of the 10 hottest years on record, not the hottest year," WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. This will be a short-lived break and not reverse the Earth's warming trend over time or reduce the urgency of climate action, according to Mr. Taalas.
La Nina - translated from Spanish as "little girl" - is a natural ocean atmospheric phenomenon marked by above-average cold sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator, thereby affecting the weather around the world.
La Nina often brings wetter and cooler-than-average conditions to the Northwest Pacific, especially in the winter. In contrast, La Nina brings drier and warmer-than-average conditions to the southern United States.
The La Nina phenomenon has a widespread impact on weather around the world - often the opposite of the El Nino phenomenon, a warming phenomenon that affects global temperatures. But the WMO warned that global warming is getting worse and distorting the effects of such natural phenomena.
The United Nations Meteorological Agency said there is a 90% chance that sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean will be affected by La Nina until the end of 2021 and a 70-80% chance that this temperature will remain in the first quarter of 2022.
Many land areas are forecast to have above-average temperatures, with an unusually warm winter in 2021 expected in the northern and northeastern regions of Asia and the Arctic.
Temperatures are expected to be above average in the eastern and southeastern regions of North America, as well as most of Europe and Northeast Asia.
Higher than normal temperatures are also forecast in the equatorial region of Africa, including Japan, which has already been driven, which is considered the first country in the world to face hunger due to climate change.
The WMO said unusually wet weather is expected in Southeast Asia and northern parts of South America, while unusually dry conditions are possible below the equator in South America and in South Asia and the Middle East.
